Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:51 pm Post subject: How do you control a mixed level class of 50 students 5-60+?

I´ve just arrived in Valdapeņas to give summer classes in a private institute and I´m supposed to teach a massive class with students from the age of 5 and upwards who also come with their parents/grandparents. Nothing I´ve ever experienced has prepared me for this. On the other hand I´m earning 300 euros a week-should I jump ship now or wait to be pushed over the precipice?????'

My god! I wish I had some great advice, but I can only offer sympathy. What an unbelievable situation!!! I'll be following this thread with interest, to see if there are some ideas out there to cover this one.

Though the OP concerns classes of 80+ Senior 1 Chinese students, some of the advice given by Sally Olsen might apply to your situation as well.

I've Copied & Pasted some of the advice she gave that I think you might want to take a look at:

Quote:

Think of it as eight classes of 10 but just held at the same time. Make up teams of 10 and have them identify themselves in some way with name and chant and logo and even song or rap. Then the group of 10 work together on something and you only have 10 worksheets to make.

Quote:

[Y]ou can have competitions between the teams on what they learned or they can keep a journal and share that with team members and then with the group at the end in a poster board session where they write their best observations or funniest or wierdest on posters and a team member takes turn standing by them to explain while the rest go around and read and laugh.

Quote:

Keep taking pictures and put it in their teams envelopes for a good review every once in awhile

Quote:

We had an English Competition between classes with the team of four or five being voted on and then meeting in the gym in front of all the classes to compete in friendly ways - they had to do a skit on the spur of the moment with characters like a camel, a rabbit, an old man and a Queen, present their class song, draw a picture as a team from a description and so on.

I'm sure you get the picture. I think that breaking the class into smaller groups of 8 - 10 would make it more manageable, and then you just have to think of activities they could do in their groups! Buena suerte!

I think Anthyp's suggestions are good, but here is one from an experience some people I knew had, although it was nothing to do with EFL, it was a workshop series that culminated in a performance.

The group consisted of grandparents and young people around the age of 18. Depending on the dynamic, groups were formed (like anthyp suggested) but they were mixed ages. The oldies (that's what they chose to call themselves! ) learned stuff from the younger ones and vice versa.

I wasn't there for the workshop stage, but floor managed the performance at the end, and some of the bonds that were made between people with completely different ages and backgrounds were truly inspiring!